For those of you Who Love the Concept and Setting of Rifts, but HATE Mega-Damage, or actually DO LIKE mega-damage, but are a bit curious what Rifts (And Other M.D.C. Settings) would be like as an S.D.C. environment (Like Me) I present the following simple mathematical formulas and rules for the balanced conversion of M.D.C. to S.D.C.

Here are some conversion Rates for the Rifts RPG (also applicable to the Chaos Earth, Splicers, and the New Robotech RPG) to convert M.D.C. power armor, bots, vehicles and weapons to the S.D.C. system. Multiply by the listed amounts to get S.D.C. Part 1: Tech Items----

M.D. Times 2 is now the S.D.C. damage for vibro-blades.

M.D. Times 2 is now the S.D.C. damage for hand-held Small Arms type weapons.

M.D. Times 3 (Times 2 for Man-sized Rail Guns) is now the S.D.C. damage for heavy or power armor mounted weapons (Includes Hand Grenades and the grenades used in Grenade Launchers), also note that Rail Guns do their converted burst damage in M.D. as S.D.C. per a single shot (I.E. a C-40R SAMAS Rail Gun now does 2D4x10 S.D.C. per a single round) and that bursts from rail guns should be treated as exactly the same as those of Machineguns.

M.D. Times 10 is now the S.D.C. damage for heavy vehicle mounted weapons (Includes the Glitter Boy's Boom-Gun).

M.D. Times 5 is now the S.D.C. damage for explosives/missiles.

M.D.C. Times 3 is now the S.D.C. for body armor (this puts Plastic-Man roughly equivalent with riot armor) and ALL Rifts, Robotech and Splicers High-Tech Body Armor has the equivalent of Natural/Robot A.R.

M.D.C. Times 3 is now the S.D.C. for power armor, cyborgs, small vehicles, and man-sized robots (this gives a Death's Head SAMAS 750 S.D.C., about as much as a Mack truck) and ALL Bionic Systems and Military Vehicles have an equivalent of Natural/Robot A.R.

M.D.C. Times 3 is now the S.D.C. for M.D.C. tanks, conventional vehicles that are larger than man sized, ships, submarines, Glitter Boys and Giant Robots (this gives the largest Iron Heart Armaments tank something like 1900 S.D.C., which is better but still in the same ballpark as an M-1 Abrams at 1500 S.D.C.), and also ALL Military Vehicles have an equivalent of Natural/Robot A.R.

M.D.C. Times 1, to Times 10, for the truly massive things (like starships, Chi-Town, etc). The balance on these kinds of things varies dramatically (See the below notes on A.R. for these).

The Armor Rating of Different Types of Armor: The only other consideration for armor is to assign an Armor Rating (A.R.).

Most padded, plastic, and light vests and body armor like the Huntsman, Urban Warrior, Juicer, and Plastic Man armor are A.R. 13. Strong and lightweight body armors like the Bushman, Gladiator, Crusader, Explorer and full plate body armor will likely have an A.R. 15 or 16. Most power armor have an A.R. of 16 to 17 and so do human sized robots, like Skelebots, and giant robots, heavy robot vehicles like the Coalition Spider Skull Walkers, tanks, APCs, etc., have and A.R. of 18. The Armor Ratings for bionic and robotic characters are likely to be in the range of at A.R. 11 or 12 for light armor, about 14 or 15 for medium armor, and 16 or 17 for heavy armor, and a 18 MAXIMUM for heavy full plate armor.

Vehicles like the Big Boss and the various car and airplane-like vehicles have an A.R. of 6 to 8, but armored vehicles like the Mountaineer A.T.V. have an A.R. of 13 to 14. Old Style Military Vehicles, the Coalition Mark V APC, Death’s Head Transports, and other tank, APC, military Aircraft and combat vehicles have an A.R. of 17. The old CS Sky Cycle has an A.R. of 14 but the new ones have an A.R. of 16.

Force Fields and Magic Barriers usually have an A.R. of 19 or 20, allowing the force field to absorb all or most of the damage. When all of the force field’s S.D.C. is used up, it’s destroyed/gone. The Armor of Ithan spell provides an A.R. of 18 and 200 S.D.C. points, the Armor Rating on Force Fields act as if Natural Armor Rating.

Notes: Only the following weapons have a prayer of EVEN SLIGHTLY damaging Tanks/Armored Vehicles, Large Robot Vehicles and Heavy Power Armor (Glitter Boys, CS Terror Trooper, Ulti-Max, etc, etc...): Magic/Psionic Weapons/Spells/Powers, Heavy Machineguns (.50 inch, 12.7mm and 14.5mm), Auto-Cannons, Energy Weapons, Any Weapon Listed as a Anti-Armor/Tank Weapon, and ANY Weapon Converted to the S.D.C. System Using these Rules that ORIGINALLY was listed as doing Mega-Damage.

Physical Strength of Robots, Power Armor, Cyborgs, and Juicers: Use these rules for the raw Physical Strength (P.S.) of the items and individuals.

NOTE: S.D.C. Game Lines do not have separate S.D.C. rating for the Turret on tanks and other vehicles, or Head, Arms, and, Legs for cyborgs, power armors, and giant robots.

Part 2: Magic, Psionics, and Certain O.C.C.s/R.C.C.s ---Step 1: See if a Magic Spell/Item/Psionic Power has an S.D.C. equivalent in another palladium game.

Step 2: Converting Magic Spells/Items/Psionic Powers with NO S.D.C. equivalent, in another palladium game: 1. Eliminate the listed S.D.C. damage levels for OFFENSIVE powers with variable M.D./S.D.C. damage ratings, 2. keep the M.D. Ratings and their P.P.E. and I.S.P. costs to use, but multiply the M.D. it does by x2 to get the S.D.C. damage it does. 3. For DEFENSIVE powers that provide M.D.C. Protection Multiply the M.D.C. they provide by x3, and if a force field use the notes on force fields above.

Step 3: Converting O.C.C.s/R.C.C.s with natural M.D.C.: 1. Multiply Base M.D.C by x5 assign (rounding to the nearest whole number) 33% to Hit points and 66% to S.D.C. 2. Assign a Natural AR: This should from 12 to 16.

I've been reading around trying to find ideas on what other people are using to address the disparities of MDC / SDC, and effective sensible conversions. Have you seen other ideas posted on this topic as well ?

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